{"id":659666,"date":"2026-06-26T17:01:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/659666\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T17:01:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:01:22","slug":"former-nottingham-midwifes-daughter-left-with-serious-brain-injury-after-delayed-care-at-nuh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/659666\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Nottingham midwife\u2019s daughter left with serious brain injury after delayed care at NUH"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Nottingham midwife\u2019s daughter was left with a serious brain injury after \u201cdays\u201d of missed and delayed care by the trust she used to work at.<\/p>\n

Four-and-a-half-year-old Caitlin was born under Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH)<\/a> in 2021 to Carlton parents Emily Stringer, 36, and Darryl Gwinnett, 38.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Born prematurely, she was transferred to the neonatal unit to continue growing in an incubator, but her parents say she was a \u201ccompletely healthy\u201d baby.<\/p>\n

Caitlin\u2019s devastating case started at just a few weeks old, when her parents noticed her abdomen had become very swollen. She became lethargic and was struggling with her feeds and the oxygen she was on.<\/p>\n

Necrotising enterocolitis was her condition, the symptoms of which were initially ignored by staff on the unit, despite Caitlin\u2019s parents raising concerns for \u201cdays\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The life-threatening illness is the most common surgical emergency in newborn babies, particularly those born prematurely, and is where tissues in the intestine become inflamed and start to die. If not treated swiftly, it can lead to a dangerous infection.<\/p>\n

Now, the four-year-old is living with a life-changing brain injury from the complications of missed and delayed intervention and is not expected to survive childhood.<\/p>\n

Emily Stringer said: \u201cWe were taking photos of her increasingly swollen abdomen, and they were all addressed in isolation \u2013 no one took a step back and thought, \u2018Hang on, these parents are right. This is a deteriorating baby.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we were right. Caitlin\u2019s bowel ruptured, and then she collapsed,\u201d Ms Stringer continued, adding her daughter was not given antibiotics until 17 hours after an X-ray had confirmed the problem \u2013 the national standard is within one hour.<\/p>\n

Ms Stringer worked as a midwife at NUH until resigning in 2018 after not having the \u201cstrength\u201d to deal with the toxic \u201csink or swim\u201d culture within the trust\u2019s maternity service. It was some of her former colleagues who were responsible for Caitlin\u2019s care after she was born.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI was told to be a mum, not a midwife; essentially, shut down as a professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving worked at the trust, I knew the issues the maternity service was facing, and I thought my knowledge would be enough to keep me and Caitlin safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo some extent, I feel quite protective of the midwives there because there are some truly great ones doing their absolute best in dire circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her partner, Darryl Gwinnett, said: \u201c[Emily] had the knowledge to ask the right questions, and that still wasn\u2019t enough, but on the days she wasn\u2019t there and it was me, someone with no healthcare background, I was just constantly lied to and dismissed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone with Emily\u2019s background can\u2019t even steer the staff into the right outcome, what chance has anyone else got?\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Caitlin cannot walk, cannot hold her head up, is non-verbal, and is fed via a tube into her stomach because she cannot safely swallow.<\/p>\n

Mr Gwinnett said, \u201cDespite all of that, she is the happiest little girl you can imagine. She\u2019s a little daredevil,\u201d with Ms Stringer adding: \u201cShe thinks she\u2019s got the best life ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caitlin and her parents are part of Donna Ockenden\u2019s independent maternity review<\/a>, the largest review in NHS history, which has unveiled the harrowing maternity care failings leading to the harm and death of 2,430 mothers and babies.<\/p>\n

The nearly four-year review was published on Wednesday (24 June)<\/a>, examining 2,505 cases of death and serious harm, including 838 current or former staff giving evidence.<\/p>\n

Of the cases, 612 related to severe maternal harm, 505 related to stillbirths, 329 related to neonatal deaths \u2013 within the first 28 days of life \u2013 297 related to brain injuries at birth, 24 related to maternal deaths, and 535 related to additional maternity experiences.<\/p>\n

Distressing details from the report include that 156 babies could have survived had better care been provided by NUH over a period of 13 years, relating to 94 stillbirths and 62 neonatal deaths.<\/p>\n

It also found 105 potentially avoidable severe brain injuries inflicted on babies and disturbing events, including one deceased baby being placed by a portering staff member into a mortuary space already occupied by an unrelated deceased adult, and another early gestational baby being \u201cinadvertently\u201d disposed of as clinical waste.<\/p>\n

In her statement, expert midwife Ms Ockenden said a \u201ctoxic culture\u201d was able to take hold across NUH maternity services, where a \u201csmall number of powerful leaders infected the unit\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said bullying was normalised, speaking up was dangerous, and junior staff were afraid to escalate concerns.<\/p>\n

\"DonnaOckenden\"Donna Ockenden<\/p>\n

Mr Gwinnett continued: \u201cI think the most heartbreaking thing is just knowing [Caitlin] should have had a better life, and it\u2019s kind of bittersweet that she doesn\u2019t understand what her life should have been like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve left her today [Wednesday, 24 June] in intensive care because she\u2019s back in there\u2026 Every time she\u2019s ill, we have to trust the same organisation that harmed her.\u201d<\/p>\n

NUH\u2019s board meets on Thursday (25 June) with families in attendance, where Nick Carver, NUH chair, said he and the chief executive, Anthony May, have agreed with impacted families to work with them on a \u201cfull and meaningful apology\u201d once the whole report had been considered, but said the board was \u201csincerely sorry\u201d for the families\u2019 harm.<\/p>\n

\"AnthonyMay\"Anthony May<\/p>\n

He said NUH was \u201cabsolutely committed\u201d to ongoing improvements, openness and transparency, and long-term engagement with families.<\/p>\n

Mr May, speaking on Wednesday, said improvements across NUH\u2019s maternity service are already apparent.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAgainst the 10 safety recommendations by which we\u2019re all judged in maternity, when I joined [the trust, in 2022], we met five of them \u2013 we now meet 10 \u2013 so that\u2019s more than words, that\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I joined, there were 126 vacancies for midwives. Now we\u2019ve got about 15. We\u2019re still trying to recruit more doctors; that\u2019s more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Thursday\u2019s board meeting, the trust announced that Sherwood Forest MP Michelle Welsh (Lab) \u2013 who suffered her own traumatic birth experience under NUH with her son in 2020 \u2013 would be chairing its learning and improvement board to oversee changes to its maternity service.<\/p>\n

Ockenden\u2019s report includes eight \u201cimmediate\u201d and \u201cessential\u201d actions NUH must work on.<\/p>\n

These are: improvements in listening to women and families; workforce planning and safe staffing; training and multi-professional learning; risk assessment throughout pregnancy; incident investigation and family involvement; governance and board accountability; culture, teamwork and psychological safety; mothers who have died; and post-death care.<\/p>\n

Impacted families are calling on the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to set up a public inquiry into national maternity services \u201cwithout delay\u201d.<\/p>\n

By Lauren Monaghan, Local democracy Reporter\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Nottingham midwife\u2019s daughter was left with a serious brain injury after \u201cdays\u201d of missed and delayed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-659666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}